How Online Backup is Better than Backup Through an External Hard Disk

Most of us choose to back up our irreplaceable data by using physical methods, such as external hard disks or USB sticks. Until recently, this was the most secure method available of making sure your data was safe if your hard disk happened to fail or your computer was stolen or damaged. While backing up your documents is incredibly important when losing them can mean disaster for your business or a sudden loss of photographs and videos that can never be retaken, external hard disks are no longer the best way to do so. Online backup is infinitely more secure and offers much more protection, should the worst happen.

Why is online backup better than an external hard disk?

Not all disasters will affect just one individual computer. Your documents are at risk from certain catastrophes that can cripple a PC, such as viruses or malware that render them inaccessible or a sudden hard disk failure that destroys all your originals in one fell swoop. An external hard disk can protect you from these things – but what if your office is affected by fire or flooding? Should that happen, any external hard drive or USB device is also at risk of being damaged and your back-ups will be destroyed along with your originals. What if a thief breaks in with an eye for your expensive equipment? Grabbing your external hard drive would be a simple matter if it’s kept near your computer and the information stored on it is often just as valuable as the equipment itself.

The extra advantages of online backup over external hard disks

As well as offering you much greater protection when disaster hits and keeping your documents in a secure location remote from your own, online backup services also make your data available to you wherever you are in the world, whatever device you are currently using. This can be particularly useful if you take regular trips for business or pleasure or use multiple methods to access your work, such as tablets or cell phones. You can even use online backup services to share your work with other people, without having to physically hand them the documents on a USB stick.

Additionally, you can set your online backup service to automatically back up your data, as regularly as you feel is necessary. With no more than a single click of a preference button, you can ask your online backup service to make sure your documents are secured on a daily or weekly basis – much more convenient and much less hassle than trying to remember to manually perform a back-up.

All of these advantages and cheaper to boot? Online backup services can be significantly less costly than buying the equipment to store your documents manually. The more you have to store, the more external hard disks you will need and the more it will cost – but an unlimited online backup service will cost you the same reasonable fee no matter how much you need to keep secure.Here is the list of Top 10 online backup providers.